Yemen’s Houthis announce missile attack on Riyadh

Sanaa, April 12 (IANS) Yemen’s Shia Houthi rebels fired a barrage of ballistic missiles on the Saudi Defense Ministry in Riyadh and oil giant Aramco in Saudi border region of Najran, the Houthis said in a statement on Wednesday.

“The rocketry forces of the Yemeni (Houthi) army and popular forces have already fired a barrage of long-range ballistic missiles, Burkan-H2, toward the headquarters of the Saudi Defense Ministry in the capital Riyadh,” said the statement, which is posted on the Houthi-controlled state Saba news agency.

“Other several ballistic missiles were fired toward the headquarters of the Saudi oil giant Aramco in Saudi border region of Najran,” Xinhua cited the Houthis as saying.

Houthis said the barrage of missiles also targeted King Abdullah city in the Saudi border province of Jizan.

Though, the Saudi-run Al Arabiya television channel reported that Saudi air defence forces had intercepted and destroyed several ballistic missiles over the capital Riyadh, and southern provinces of Jizan and Najran.

Hours earlier, the Houthis said that they had launched drone air strikes on a facility run by oil giant Saudi Aramco in Najran and on a civil airport in Abha city in the Saudi border province of Asir.

However, the Saudi company tweeted that its establishments were operating “normally and safely.”